WO2001082103A1

WO2001082103A1 - Method of and apparatus for providing custom-made information in wireless internet environment

Info

Publication number: WO2001082103A1
Application number: PCT/KR2001/000581
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hyuk Kwon; Jae-Yeong Lee
Original assignee: Mbridge Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2000-04-06
Filing date: 2001-04-06
Publication date: 2001-11-01
Also published as: AU4888201A; KR20010094257A

Abstract

Disclosed are a method of an apparatus for providing custom-made information in a wireless internet environment. The method for providing custom-made information according to the invention includes the steps of setting a service on demand to selectively register desired information by accessing a server, and inquiring about the service on demand by accessing the server by means of a cellular phone. The apparatus for providing custom-made information in a wireless internet environment includes a server, which comprises a server including a user's DB for setting a service on the user's demand (custom-made information) and storing the custom-made information, a data collecting section for collecting data from another information providing server connected to internet, a data processing section for analyzing the collected data and processing the analyzed data into desired data, and a page formatting section for displaying the processed data. The server is characterized in that desired information is selectively registered and stored in a user's DB by accessing the server, and the registerd custom-made information is inquired about through access to the server by means of a cellular phone.

Description

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING CUSTOM-MADE INFORMATION IN WIRELESS INTERNET ENVIRONMENT

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for providing custom-made information in a wireless internet environment, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for enabling a user to select and register desired information in advance through access to a server and to acquire information as custom-made information by means of a cellular phone.

Background Art

Recently, it has become a common practice to provide a variety of information services by using networks such as internet. The information service using networks is owing to the technology that enables remote computers to exchange information through data communication. The information service is provided for a user who accesses a server. which collects, processes and stores information.

A personal computer (PC), which is a widely used terminal, is required to receive information services through networks. The PC requires communication means for communicating with another computer through networks as well as a browser for viewing web pages of servers. Such kind of information services using computers is the general method of conducting an information service business of today. Recently, however, a technology has been developed to provide a user with information services such as stock index, weather forecasting, news flash, fortune telling, reservations, games, etc. through a wireless web server, which the user can access by means of a cellular phone to receive diverse kinds of information.

However, size of a display window is much smaller in a cellular phone than in a PC. Accordingly, displaying information in relatively simple characters rather than in image is optimal for a cellular phone. Also, because of a limit of an input apparatus of a cellular phone, 10 numeric keys and several functional keys only are available.

Thus being difficult to reach a corresponding page by using a multi-tasking or link technique available in a PC. it is inconvenient and takes time for the user to acquire information through a cellular phone.

Fig. 1 is a description of a conventional method for providing information by using a wireless web server. A user accesses a wireless web server by means of a cellular phone [101]. If the wireless web server supplies a main menu to the cellular phone, the main menu is displayed on a display window of the cellular phone terminal [103]. For instance, news flash, stock index, reservations, weather forecasting, fortune telling, games, etc. are displayed on an initial page of the terminal. The user selects a first sub-menu from the main menu displayed on the cellular phone [105]. An example is a stock index menu. The user then selects a second submenu [107]. An example is a current price of each item from the stock index menu. If the user selects a target sub-menu [109], the corresponding information is ultimately displayed on the display window of the terminal [11 1 ]. For example, the current stock price is displayed on the display window if the user inputs a particular company name listed beside the current price of each item.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention relates to a method for providing a user with custom-made information by means of a cellular phone once after the user selects and registers desired information in advance through access to a server of a new concept. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for enabling a user to select and register desired information through access to a server of a new concept, and to acquire information as custom-made information through access to the server by means of a cellular phone.

To achieve an object of the present invention, there is provided a method of providing custom-made information in wireless internet environment according to the present invention, comprising the steps of: setting a service on demand to selectively register desired information by accessing a server; and inquiring about the set service on demand by accessing the server by means of a cellular phone.

The step of setting a service on demand comprises the sub-steps of: accessing the server; selecting desired information from a variety of information provided by the server; and storing the information selected by a user (custom-made information) and a serial number of the user's cellular phone in a database (DB) by operating a CGI program.

The step of inquiring about the custom-made information comprises the sub-steps of: accessing the server by means of the cellular phone by the user; collecting data from another information providing server through internet by searching the user's DB for the service on demand; selectively processing information to be displayed on the cellular phone of the user, and formatting a page by analyzing the collected data (information); and transmitting the constructed page to the cellular phone.

According to the present invention, the user can inquire about desired information with minimum key inputs or without undergoing a key input process in a cellular phone. Therefore, the user can be provided information on a convenient and prompt basis. To be specific, the conventional technology requires more than ten key inputs at least and consumes tens of seconds or several minutes to provide a stock index, weather forecasting and fortune telling. However, the present invention shortened the period of time to be several seconds only.

Brief Description of Drawings The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a flow chart illustrating a process of a conventional method of providing information through a wireless web server;

Fig. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a process of selectively registering information in a server according to the present invention;

Fig. 2A is a diagram exemplifying a display of information selected in Fig. 2; Fig. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a process of providing information selected by accessing the server;

Fig. 3 A is a diagram exemplifying a display of information selected in Fig. 3; and Fig. 4 is a diagram illustrating a construction of a system for providing an information service according to the present invention.

Best Modes for Carrying out the Invention

A best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described herein below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail since they would obscure the invention in unnecessary detail.

The method of providing custom-made information according to the present invention is performed in a system as shown in Fig. 4. The apparatus for providing custom-made information according to the present invention comprises a server 17 for selectively providing information demanded by a user (custom-made information) through access to a PC. The server 17 comprises an interface 18 for setting a service demanded by the user, a DB query/write section 19, a user's DB 20, a DB query section 21 for collecting data from another information providing server connected to internet, a DB collecting section 22, a DB processing section 23, and a page formatting section 24. The conventional method of providing information is operated in a manner of accessing a wireless web server by means of a cellular phone, which functions as a gateway by being connected to a variety of web servers. However, the present invention enables a user to collect, process and directly receive information from the server 17 by means of a cellular phone 15 if the user has selectively registered and stored the desired information in the user's DB 20 through access to the server 17 by means of a PC.

An operation of the apparatus for providing custom-made information according to the present invention will now be described with reference to Fig. 4 together with a method therefor.

The method of providing custom-made information according to the present invention is performed in a system shown in Fig. 4. The method comprises the steps of setting a service on demand (custom-made information) to selectively register information by accessing the server 17, and inquiring about the registered custom-made information by accessing the server 17 by means of the cellular phone 15.

The operation will now be described in further detail with reference to the drawing. Fig. 2 shows a step of selectively registering desired information by accessing the server 17 (the step of setting a service on demand). To be specific, the step of setting a service on demand comprises the sub-steps of accessing a server [201 ], selecting desired information from a variety of information provided by the server [203], operating a CGI program [205] to store the information selected by the user (custom-made information) and a serial number of the user's cellular phone in the user's DB [207].

The server 17 can be accessed by means of a browser installed in a PC as shown in Fig. 4. The server 17 is accessed by the PC through a wire network, and desired information is selected from the information menu provided by the server 17. Referring to Fig. 2A, the menu selected by the user from the menu, which has been provided by the server, is displayed. If the user confirms selection of the menu, the server stores the selected custom-made information shown in Fig. 2A and the telephone number of the user's cellular phone (or an identification number such as a serial number of the terminal) in the DB by operating the CGI program. To allow the user to view the registered information (the step of inquiring about the information), the process is undergone as shown in Fig. 3. If the user accesses the server by using the cellular phone [301], the CGI program of the server operates [303]. Subsequently, the server searches the user's DB 20 for a service on demand [305] to collect data from another information providing server through internet [307]. The server 17 analyzes the collected data (information) to selectively process the information to be displayed on the cellular phone and to format a page [309]. The page data are transmitted to the cellular phone [311]. The user can view the information displayed on his/her own cellular phone [313]. The cellular phone of the user displays the information selected in Fig. 2 only as custom-made information. Meanwhile, if the user sets his/her own cellular phone so as to display the custom- made information on an initial page thereof, the custom-made information can be displayed as soon as the user accesses the server. The following is a process of displaying the custom-made information. If the user accesses the server by means of the cellular phone, the server recognizes the user's telephone number or identification number so that the user can inquire about the custom-made information set in the user^'s DB in the server. Based on the inquired custom-made information, the CGI program searches another server that owns particular information to read the current information. The read information is transmitted to the user's cellular phone.

While the invention has been shown and described with reference to a certain best mode for carrying out the invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

What Is Claimed Is:

1. A method of providing custom-made information in a wireless internet environment, comprising the steps of: setting a service on demand to selectively register desired information by accessing a server; and inquiring about the service on demand by accessing the server by means of a cellular phone.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of setting a service on demand comprises the sub-steps of: accessing the server; selecting desired information from a variety of information provided by the server; and storing the information selected by the user (custom-made information) and a serial number of the user's cellular phone in a DB by operating a CGI program.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the step of inquiring about the custom-made information comprises the sub-steps of: accessing the server by means of the cellular phone by the user; collecting data from another information providing server by searching the user's DB for the service on demand through internet by the server; selectively processing information to be displayed on the user's cellular phone, and formatting a page by analyzing the collected data (information); and transmitting the formatted page to the cellular phone.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of: setting the user's cellular phone so as to display the custom-made information on an initial page thereof when accessing the server; inquiring about the custom-made information in the DB of the server by recognizing the user's telephone number or identification number if the user accesses the server by means of the cellular phone ; reading the current information from the inquired custom-made information by searching another server, which owns predetermined information among the corresponding custom-made information; and transmitting the read information to the user's cellular phone.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising the steps of: setting the user's cellular phone so as to display the custom-made information on an initial page thereof when accessing the server; inquiring about the custom-made information in the DB of the server by recognizing the user's telephone number or identification number if the user accesses the server by means of the cellular phone; reading the current information from the inquired custom-made information by searching another server, which owns predetermined information among the corresponding custom-made information; and transmitting the read information to the user's cellular phone.

6. An apparatus for providing custom-made information in a wireless internet environment including a server, which comprises a user's DB for setting a service on the user's demand (custom-made information) and storing the custom-made information, a data collecting section for collecting data from another information providing server connected to internet, a data processing section for analyzing the collected data and processing the analyzed data into desired data, and a page formatting section for displaying the processed data, the server being characterized in that desired information is selectively registered and stored in a user's DB by accessing the server, and the registered custom-made information is inquired about through access to the server by means of a cellular phone.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the server further comprises a DB query/write section for storing data in the user's DB to function as an interface; and a DB query section for calling the data stored in the user's DB.